1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a loading apparatus for card-type recording mediums adapted to receive a plurality of different flat card-type recording mediums.
This application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-033994, filed on Feb. 10, 2004, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
2. Description of Related Art
Card-type recording mediums such as IC cards, conforming to various different standards are being popularly used. Card-type recording mediums conforming to various different standards can record various data including image data, moving image data, music data, and document data. While such recording mediums may be used for the same or similar purposes, many of them show different profiles and are designed to be used with different interfaces, so that normally it is not possible to use the same loading apparatus for card-type recording mediums of different shapes. Thus, users have to possess different loading apparatuses that can be used with the different card-type recording mediums of different shapes that they have. It may be cumbersome to possess a number of different loading apparatuses.
To avoid this problem, a loading apparatus provided with loading sections, or loading slots, for receiving card-type recording mediums of different shapes has been proposed (see, inter alia, Patent Document: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-110880). Such a loading apparatus is convenient because the user can use card-type recording mediums of different shapes if he or she possesses them. However, when a loading apparatus is equipped with loading slots for receiving card-type recording mediums of different shapes, the user may load a card-type recording medium into an incorrect slot. If the user loads a card-type recording medium deep into an incorrect slot, it may not be possible to remove it. Then, a machine trouble may occur.